Friends and family members of Marine Park divorce attorney Mark Schwartz and his wife Christine Petrowski-Schwartz prayed for justice Sunday as detectives continued to pour over evidence that may lead them to the killer who took their lives.
The beloved couple, who were as devoted to each other as they were to their family, neighbors and clients of their thriving Quentin Road law practice, were found gunned down in their home on East 33rd Street near Fillmore Avenue on the afternoon of July 16.
Sometime the night before, a gunman crept into the home, somehow managed to subdue their protective German shepherd – which was found tied up in the backyard the next day – and shot them both in the head.
Their housekeeper found their bloodied bodies, officials said.
As of late Tuesday, no arrests had been made in the killing.
Investigators were reportedly questioning a number of possible suspects, including Petrowski-Schwartz’s son Nicholas.
Neighbors told reporters that the Schwartz’s put the sign “Don’t come home” on their front lawn a few weeks earlier. The sign, they believe, was directed at Nicholas, who lived above their law practice.
Nicholas reportedly told detectives about another possible suspect, a business partner of the couple and a former federal employee who may have embezzled money from the Schwartz’s during a recent business venture.
Police sources said this week that detectives were “looking over everything.” Nothing and no one is being discounted, they said.
During a funeral service at Sherman’s Flatbush Memorial Chapel on Coney Island Avenue Sunday, mourners said that even though the couple had been married just eight years, they participated in an almost legendary love affair.
“They were attached not physically, but for all intents and purposes emotionally,” Rabbi Joel Smilchensky explained to the dozens gathered as he looked over Mark’s urn and Christina’s casket in the Midwood chapel. “One did not go without the other. It was a beautiful example of how one should relate to a spouse.
“Mark and Chris showed us what love, caring and devotion was all about,” he said.
The evening before the slaying, Christina’s daughter Melissa remembered being at their house. As usual, Christina was happily preparing dinner for her beloved.
“She was smiling. They were happy like always,” she recalled, adding that just that Monday, Schwartz had told her that he wished the clients in the divorce cases he handled could “keep the kind of love that they had.”
“In a way I’m grateful that they did both go, because I don’t know how to console either one of them,” she said. “This is the way they would have wanted it. They don’t mean to leave us upset, but at least now we know that they have each other.”
Schwartz’s cousin Elliot said that the attorney had an “Uncle Buck” quality about him.
He was loud, garrulous and his language was “colorful” at best, he explained.
Elliot remembered that his cousin was so dedicated to his work that one time during a family trip to Alaska, he commandeered the hotel’s front desk just so he could handle a legal problem for a client.
“He made all of the hotel staff associates of Schwartz and Associates,” he recalled.
Christina, who acted as a mediator in the law firm, gladly took the role of everyone’s older sister, Elliot recalled, explaining that when he was dating his wife, Christina would find gifts for him to buy his future bride.
Besides the law, Mark enjoyed fishing and tinkering with computers, Elliot said.
“[Mark] programmed my first computer. The password he put in? ‘MALPRACTICE.’ He said that way I would always remember him,” he said.
As the investigation continues, cops are asking anyone with information regarding this shocking murder to come forward.
Calls can be made to the NYPD CrimeStoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
